Posts Tagged ‘Dice’

You like patches, kid? I couldn’t help but notice you checking out my cool leather jacket. Yep, that’s a Counter-Strike beta 5.2 patch. Best damn version, I say. And look, on my shoulder: CS beta 3.1. The last days of gun-running, that one. Hey, you’ve got a good eye kid! That is DotA Allstars v5.84c! Different times… Here, you’ll like this: QTest. I was there, first night. You see a lot of folks wearing fakes nowadays, claiming they were there and warbling on about how this or that ruined the scene, but check the thread: it should be copper wire. Fakes miss that. Posers, they’re the real problem.

What is a die? Let’s take a look at the standard 6-sided die. Six faces, yes? Numbered, usually with pips, from 1 to 6. One pip means failure, six pips means success. That’s how we usually understand it.

It is an object of pure chance. You take a die in your hand and shake it. The shaking means nothing. It does nothing. It creates the illusion of agency. You let the die loose and it tumbles, cracks open its chaotic secret. Failure. Success.

Battlefield Hardlines, originally slated for 21st October this year, has now been given a significantly later release date. The Space Year 2015. “Early” 2015. On a slippy day for EA, which also saw the announcement of Dragon Age: Inquisition sliding into November, DICE’s cops-n-robbers reinvention of the Battlefield series seems to have taken a much more serious hit. Apparently in response to what maybe wasn’t that brilliant of a beta test in June.

Prepare for extreme explosiabangs! It’s the fourth (of five) Battlefield 4 map packs, Dragon’s Teeth. Continuing the narrative of a China-America conflict, the fighting has now reached the south of mainland Asia, putting the focus squarely on infantry combat in urban environments. Furthering the series mainstay of having everything best about C&C Generals present, there’s a map where trains will destroy tanks that have been left on the tracks. Best. It’s out now for “premium” members, while mere mortals must wait until July 29th. Trailer and details below for your honourable service to this great nation.

Battlefield Hardlimes‘ surprise E3 beta is officially over and done with, or in military speak (that I have learned exclusively from videogames), Charlie Mike Oscar Bravo Rhinoceros Chimpanzee Overalls Tuba. Given how Battlefield 4‘s launch turned out, however, I’m quite glad to hear that another beta will be happening this fall. Maybe… maybe this one will finally launch in actual, factual ship shape?

Battlefield Hardlimes might feel eerily similar to Battlefield 4 in ways that call into question its worthiness as a full release, but it’s important to keep in mind that we haven’t seen everything yet. And while Battlefield definitely isn’t known for its memorable singleplayer campaigns, there is potential here. For one, it won’t be Just Another War Story because cops and robbers. And for two, Visceral has quite the singleplayer pedigree, what with all those times they killed outer space. I spoke with creative director Ian Milham about his plans, and here’s what he told me.

Upon hearing EA claim that Battlefield will not succumb to annual sequelitis like Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, and their ilk, I was immediately reminded of that time it snapped up the domains for Battlefields 13-20. I’m not saying it’s indicative of anything, just that I can’t help but think of it, given the context. But yes, despite the fact that we’re now on our second consecutive battleyear thanks to Battlefield Hardline, the series is apparently not an annual guarantee.

In an interview with Game Informer, DICE general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson stated that the beta process for future Battlefield titles may resemble an Early Access release. “We have nothing to announce, but we are having discussions when it comes to [early access]…It comes not from a business perspective, but more from a perspective of if it would help us have a stable launch of the game.” The joke writes itself, of course, given the many complaints about Battlefield 4’s various issues at launch. Is this just a branding exercise that aims to legitamise the unstable first months of a game’s existence or would it be a useful learning experience for the developers. Probably a bit of both.

You think you know lines? You think you know their relative structural integrity? Newflash: YOU DON’T KNOW SHIT ABOUT LINES. Battlefield Hardline? That’s where it’s at. Hardest lines in the biz. The business of lines, to be clear. Also it’s about police and robbers, and now – finally, after roughly 167 leaks – EA’s seen fit to release an official trailer. It’s got a release date too: October.

“Lag!” you cry as the bullet zooops down your scope and through your virtual face. “Laaaaaag!” You’re awful and everyone wants you to be quiet, but last week you might have elicited a modicum of sympathy in Battlefield 4 by grumbling about netcode, or at least recognition. Now you’ll get only contempt. Maybe. Assuming a new fix actually works. Developers DICE yesterday rolled out a patch adding a ‘High Frequency Bubble’ option which should take a knife to the visible lag. One of DICE’s test shows this cut in half, though of course things may be different in actual real games.

Battlefield: Hardline is mere weeks away from being shown off for the first time, and Battlefield 4 just got microtransactions. What’s an already overwhelmed Battlefield neophyte to do? Why, dive into a different Battlefield altogether, of course. I mean, I guess that’s rationale behind EA’s decision to make BF3 100 percent free as part of Origin’s On The House program, and – while things haven’t exactly been sunshine and butterflies on the battle-est of fields lately – I won’t look a gift tank in the turret. I feel like that would be a very, very poor idea under any circumstance, virtual or not.

Somewhere beneath all of Battlefield 4‘s glitches, server woes, and ceaseless controversy lies a very good game. Even back when it first launched, I jumped into a few matches that went off without a hitch, and I thought to myself, “Wow, there is a preposterous amount going on here and also I just murdered a man with a defibrillator.” But it’s like a “levolutionary” building with sickly hunks of concrete hanging from twisting threads of rebar – one small push, and everything comes crumbling down (unless there is a physics glitch). And now the latest not-so-great-looking mark on a very not-sterling record: EA and DICE have added microtransactions to Battlefield 4, a premium game that still hasn’t seen a single price drop. But hey, at least they’re optional.

Battlefield 4 is kind of like Humpty Dumpty. It launched, pretty much immediately face-planted off its precarious perch, and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men still haven’t managed to fully put poor ol’ Humpty back together again. There’s a good game in there somewhere, but lag and a smattering of related (and unrelated) issues threaten to drown it beneath the Megalodon-infested seas. So DICE has finally elected to bring out the big guns in the form of new server hardware. The question is, did it work?